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Wednesday, November 09, 2011

DesignByMe...DEAD?

It appears as if the LEGO DesignByMe product line is going to cease at the end of the year.

Here's the LEGO announcement:

Changes to Design byME in January
We are closing that part of the Design byMe service that allows you to order your digital models in real bricks. We will be accepting orders until January 16, 2012. You can still design what you want with LEGO Digital Designer and upload models into a public gallery as before. All existing models will be transferred to a new gallery on the LDD website.

You will also be able to download the instructions generated from LEGO Digital Designer.
The HERO Recon Team Hero Creator will be unchanged and you’ll still be able to build and buy your own customized Hero. If you need to buy bricks separately, you can use our Pick a Brick service http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme .
This is not the end of customization for the LEGO Group, but a revision. We believe in the future of customization, but the service we offer has to be right for our consumers and Design byME has proven to be too complex for children.

The original Design byMe vision was for a unique customization service, where consumers could design whatever they imagined, display it and get the model sent to in their own LEGO box. Design byMe as a concept attracts several million people each year to build a huge range of amazing creations using the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) software. Despite this success, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service.

You can still order models up until January 16, 2012 and our consumer service departments will answer questions about Design byME after that date.
If you want to order a Design byME model for Christmas, remember to order by November 24.

Note my highlights. I'd curious to read your take on these comments. Drop them below or post them on the new BimP Google+ page. I for one am concerned about the future of LEGO Digital Designer. I love this tool and would hate to see development cease.